Washington

SAN ANTONIO - Attorneys must read transaction documents carefully and think before signing them, Securities and Exchange Commission officials warned Thursday, citing an ongoing enforcement case against Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and one of its former executives.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board filed rule changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday to change the procedures for periodic compliance examinations of broker-dealers in the muni market.

WASHINGTON - House Democrats, in recommendations made to the joint deficit-reduction committee, have called for reinstating Build America Bonds, increasing funding for clean water state revolving funds, allowing the Bush income tax cuts to expire, and imposing a risk-based fee on big banks, securities firms and other financial companies.

SAN ANTONIO - A bond attorney urged colleagues here on Wednesday to do more for "market betterment" by supporting legislative efforts to give the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to develop "a uniform baseline disclosure rule."

WASHINGTON - Public sector pensions should consider disclosing their projected future contributions in order to fare better in the marketplace, a bond lawyers' group said in guidance circulated earlier this month.

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee warned Wednesday that "a national infrastructure bank as proposed" in President Obama's jobs bill "is dead on arrival in the House of Representatives."

State and local government officials are applauding House Ways and Means Committee members on the eve of an expected vote to approve legislation that would repeal a 3% withholding requirement that they warn would be costly and burdensome.

WASHINGTON - Kristin H. R. Franceschi, a partner at DLA Piper LLP in Baltimore, takes over the helm of the National Association of Bond Lawyers Wednesday amid uncertainty about how the municipal market will be affected by the European financial crisis, the U.S. political environment, and federal regulatory and legislative changes.

Money market funds are supposed to be ultra-safe, but new provisions have popped up in recent years that can make it difficult for holders of variable-rate and short-term securities to interpret and monitor.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's jobs council has made transportation investment one of five priorities for accelerating job growth and improving the country's long-term competitiveness.

Kristin Franceschi practices corporate, securities and public finance law at DLA Piper. She represents clients and helps colleagues on structured financings, conduit deals, tax increment financings, defeasance transactions, arbitrage issues, and general municipal law.

DENVER - A dealer group said the issuer community must mobilize to defend the federal tax exemption for municipal securities, which has been called into question by recent Obama administration proposals.

SAN FRANCISCO - California has received a favorable private-letter ruling from the Internal Revenue Service that will allow it to remarket Build America Bonds this month while keeping the federal subsidy.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to seek a cloture vote Tuesday that would limit debate on a modified version of the jobs bill that was recently proposed by President Obama.

DENVER - Almost one year after Meredith Whitney forecast widespread defaults by state and local governments, a new threat looms over the municipal securities market: the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, a market expert said here Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Fitch Ratings sees no widespread threat to state ratings from efforts to cut the federal deficit or from a slowing economy. Both, however, "present much uncertainty and risk," according to a report released on Thursday.

WASHINGTON - President Obama offered potentially good and bad news for the municipal market on Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO - Washington State will sell $1.29 billion of general obligation bonds next week, its largest deal ever, partly to finance a new floating bridge.

Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the Cascade Medical Center in Chelan County to BBB-minus from BBB.

DENVER - Municipal borrowers continue to lag behind corporations in completing their annual audited financial reports, and state and local governments are only incrementally faster than a year ago, a new report concludes.